Test System for Catalysts

In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance which increases the speed of a chemical reaction without the substance itself being used in the reaction. It does this by reducing the activation energy. By doing this, catalysts change the kinetics of chemical reactions without changing their thermodynamic properties. They speed up the forward and reverse reaction at the same rate so that the equilibrium of a reaction is not affected in any way.

The chemistry department at a university designed a system for testing catalysts for chemical substance conversions. The design of this test system is shown in the system drawing below:

Using flow meters, pressure controllers and pumps

EL-FLOW Mass Flow Controllers (MFCs) are used to mix a variety ofgases (NH3, H2, CO2, N2, Ar, CO, etc.). In this system, they are fed into areactor along with toluene, methanol and water. In that reactor, an EL-PRESSpressure controller (EPC) is then used to bring the catalyst to aconstant pressure while the reactor is still being heated.

What is special about this application is that three mini CORI-FLOW Coriolismass flow meters (LFMs) which control three (WADOSE) HPLC pumps areused for dosing and mixing the liquids. The mass flow meters with pumpsand the gas flow controllers are controlled by means of a fieldbus (FLOWBUS).

The three mini CORI-FLOWdevices are designed for a flow rate of 20 g/hand the setting ratio of the pump control system is 1:50 so that the smallestvalue that can be controlled is 0.4 g/h. The pumps are mounted on the sideand controlled by means of the RS232 of the Coriolis liquid flow meters.

The Coriolis liquid flow meters are mounted on the top of the system. The thermal gas flow controllers are mounted on the side and are controlled via FLOW-BUS, similar to the Coriolis devices.

To learn more about the EL-FLOW Mass Flow Controller (MFC), LEARN MORE > To learn more about the EL-PRESS Electronic Pressure Transmitter (EPT), LEARN MORE > To learn more about the Mini CORI-FLOW™, LEARN MORE >